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Canvassing on a hockey night? Wait for an intermission

"Canada may postpone an important political debate because it may conflict with a hockey game. An entire nation is willing to put democracy on hold to watch burly guys smash each other in the face. That is awesome."

-- Late-night talk show host Craig Ferguson, on the Frenchlanguage leaders debate that was moved up a night so it wouldn't conflict with the first game of the Montreal Canadiens-Boston Bruins playoff series

Four party leaders benched for a night -- "healthy scratches," as they say in the hockey business.

That a national election debate was bodychecked by the Stanley Cup playoffs tells you all you need to know about Canadians, who have been faced with a choice between politics and the puck game for the past three weeks.

It's like getting first pick in a hockey pool and having to choose between Sidney Crosby and Trevor Gillies.

"It shows the power and influence of hockey-supporting crowds," said Queen's University political science professor Christian Leuprecht of the rescheduling of the French-language debate.

"It shows the world is actually all right, that it's not going to hell in a handbasket. We don't want politicians and their platforms taking over our lives."

The last federal election held during the playoffs was in 2004, when the campaign began May 23, two days before the start of the Stanley Cup final. This time, however, the second half of the five-week campaign coincided with the first round of the postseason -- 16 teams, eight series and a couple of games every night for two weeks.

At a Liberal party rally with leader Michael Ignatieff and former prime minister Jean Chretien in Toronto on Tuesday night, Liberal supporters sent out updates on Twitter about the event -- and Game 7 between the Bruins and Canadiens.

"People have one eye on the election and one eye on hockey," said Ted Hsu, the Liberal candidate in Kingston and the Islands.

The three other candidates in the riding have seen firsthand on the campaign trail that a lot of voters care more about watching the chase for Lord Stanley's mug than the chase for a seat in the House of Commons.

"You know they're watching a hockey game -- you can see it on the TV in the front window. You hate to knock on the door and disrupt them. I'll just say. 'Here's some literature if you want to read it.'

"You could anticipate they didn't want to talk. I know my place."

Green party candidate Eric Walton, who said watching the playoffs has been one of his perks during the campaign, has been sensitive to canvassing on playoff nights.

"I'm very careful about when to knock on doors," said Walton, who's rooting for the Vancouver Canucks. "I try to do it before supper.

"Not everyone in the house is watching hockey, so someone will answer the door. Sometimes people will answer the door because they're expecting a friend who's coming over to watch the game.

"I'll just hand a pamphlet to them."

NDP candidate Daniel Beals said some people have invited him into their homes to watch the games.

"Especially people in apartments," said Beals, a Maple Leafs fan. "I'll see the TV and say, 'You're watching the game,' and they'll say, 'Yeah, it's (the score).' They want you to sit and watch it and have a drink with them.

"I've been able to get a couple of chips out of it, but I'm never able to sit and have a beer. There's not enough time."

Not every person is that welcoming, however.

"I'm good at reading who's at the door," said Beals. "I introduce myself, give them our information and say, 'Please call me if you have any questions and I'll call you back.' "

Trying to get some viewers off the couch is as difficult as getting the Maple Leafs into the playoffs.

"If someone is engrossed in the game, they're not going to answer the door. Someone else will answer it," said Queen's political science professor Kathy Brock, a lifelong Bruins fans.

(One time at a conference in Toronto, she told then Minister of Human Resources Ken Dryden, the former Montreal Canadiens goaltending great and Bruins playoff nemesis, "I admire your work in politics, but you broke my heart when I was a child.")

"People don't want strangers at the door, especially if they're engaged in something important, like watching a hockey game. I don't think people take to it kindly," said Queen's political science professor Elizabeth Goodyear- Grant, a hockey fan who had first pick in her fantasy hockey league last fall and chose Crosby.

(His season-ending concussion in January led to Goodyear- Grant finishing last among 15 teams.)

Three of the federal party leaders have tried to use the playoffs to their advantage, especially when it comes to photo opportunities.

NDP Leader Jack Layton was in Montreal the night of the Bruins-Canadiens series opener pouring beer in a sports bar while decked out in a heritage-style Habs jersey.

Ignatieff has sported a Canucks jersey during two visits to British Columbia in the past two weeks.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his wife, Laureen, were photographed watching Game 7 of the Canucks-Chicago Blackhawks series on a laptop computer on their campaign plane. Two weeks before that, the couple was in a Richmond, B.C., sporting goods store buying a Canucks jersey for their son, Ben.

"(Wearing a Canadiens or Canucks jersey) represents their loyalty to the area and it shows our politicians are also regular people with an interest in a pastime of other Canadians," said Brock. "They connect with people in a sincere way."

Goodyear-Grant agreed. "Politicians like to link themselves with sports, trying to curry favour with the voters," she said.

"Canadian politicians have been doing that for a long time. It's a good strategy; there's the stereotype that Canadians love hockey. That's why you see politicians wearing a city's jersey.

"(The hockey link) cuts across all age groups, socio-economic groups, genders. It's quite brilliant in terms of general appeal.

"People feel they are a pproachable. For Stephen Harper and Michael Ignatieff, it's quite important. People think Harper is wooden or robotic and that Ignatieff is stuck up and elite."

Leuprecht said the strategy has failed for Ignatieff, whose Liberal party is floundering in the national polls.

"People don't buy it," he said. "Michael Ignatieff comes across as disingenuous. The electorate is smart and astute. Ignatieff has a PhD -- he's basically a university professor -- he's been away from Canada a long time, he has no young children, he's not a hockey fan. He couldn't tell you who the captain of the Montreal Canadiens is or who the goalie is.

"I might be wrong, he might be a hockey fan -- most philosophers aren't -- but people see it and think, 'You're just saying you are because you just want our vote.' People don't buy it.

"Some strategist told him to put on a sweater."

The strategy is better suited to Harper, a member of the Society of International Hockey Research, and Layton.

"Jack Layton, rightly or wrongly, comes off as a people person," said Leuprecht. "He looks like you could sit down with him and ask, 'Should they have played (Roberto) Luongo or (Cory) Schneider?' 'Was it the right call to play Luongo?'

"People look at Michael Ignatieff and say, 'I couldn't have that conversation with him and if I could, I wouldn't want to.'

"He doesn't come off as a guy you'd invite to your house and watch a hockey game with. Stephen Harper comes off as anti- elitist, Layton as well. Michael Ignatieff hasn't really done that."

Ignatieff was booed by the crowd at an Ontario Hockey League playoff game in Mississauga last Saturday. He attended the game as a guest of Mayor Hazel McCallion and when the scoreboard flashed an image of Ignatieff smiling and waving from a private box, the fans let him have it.

Ignatieff understood the fans' reaction.

"We're in the middle of the third period in a closely contested game ... and some darn politician pops his head up on the Jumbotron -- I'd boo," he told reporters after the game. "It's Saturday night and they want to watch hockey."

Ignatieff's appearance on the screen was as welcome as a Raffi Torres's blindside hit to the head.

"People get a sense of a politician taking advantage of the situ-at ion," said Goodyear-Grant. "They think, 'Oh, God, he's making a campaign pit stop.' "

The message from the fans was crystal clear, according to Leuprecht.

"Hockey is our national sport, don't politicize it, don't use it as your political stage for your political antics," he said. "We don't want to be used as an instrument."

The buzzer on this election season will sound Monday night, after which the politicians can put away their jerseys-- de-pending on how far the Canucks advance -- and Canadians can devote more of their attention to a debate that really matters: Luongo or Schneider?

mnorris@thewhig.com

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Sometimes you can mix hockey with politics

Former NHL players who skated into the political arena include:

¦ Syl Apps: The Maple Leafs great and Conservative represented Kingston in the Ontario legislature from 1963 to 1975.

¦ Lionel Conacher: After spending half of his 12-year career with the Montreal Maroons, he was a Liberal MLA from 1937 to 1943 and MP from 1949 to 1954, representing a pair of Toronto ridings.

¦ Ken Dryden: The former Montreal Canadiens goaltender has been a Liberal MP for the Toronto riding of York Centre since 2004.

¦ Red Kelly: He was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal in the riding of York West in June 1962, two months after helping the Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup. He was re-elected in 1963 and served until 1965, during which time he helped Toronto win two more Stanley Cup titles.

¦ Wilfred (Bucko) McDonald: A defenceman who spent 11 seasons in the NHL during the 1930s and '40s, he was a Liberal MP from Parry Sound from 1945-1957.

¦ Howie Meeker: Known to a generation of Canadians as a TV analyst and hockey skills instructor, he won a federal byelection in Waterloo South as a Conservative in June 1951 while a Maple Leafs player and served a two-year term, opting not to run in the 1953 election.